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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

I broke a front tooth riding a mountain bike in California 30 years ago and it has been nothing but an irritation ever since. Chewing corn off the cob was bloody stupid in that condition and I paid the price.

Jack Riepe described this as my vacation face. I joked while I bled and they stuck me with needles and glue. All is well if temporarily and my insurance kicked in for half the 200 dollar bill. Onwards!

Rusty was the epitome of patience on his bed in the back seat, popping up from time time to look around and then curling up for a nap. I love his curiosity at every stop no matter how mundane. He loves life.

I know we overdo the mileage on these road trips but there is so much to see and so many people to meet that destination gets piled on destination. Riding the folds of land last night across Tennessee I couldn't help but wonder how the non- freeway roads must have twisted and undulated but we had to arrive so we drove 75 with bursts to 80 inbetween blue flashing lights, of which there were too many and I achieved my goal of not talking to a cop for a day.

Schloss Sadler in the dark of a full moon forested night. Instead of being greeted by vampires and creaking doors we ate chicken and biscuits and cobbler and beer and conversation and Rusty could hardly contain himself when he saw the woods. Good things come to them as wait.

Gary and Barbara melted away to do the jobs that got their kids through college and raised them in these corner of a different Paradise than thet say is Key West. Gary lists after Key West and now I'm here I wonder why.

Watching Rusty prowl the woods and sit in the lush grass to watch the world goby I know where he'd rather be. I can't fault my dog for his common sense.

It's located at 616 Louisa Street, roughly behind the First State Bank on Simonton and Catherine Streets. If you had a strong arm you could toss a rock (a very strong arm) into Abbondanza Restaurant, though why you want to I couldn't say. Rusty and I took refuge there from a rain storm.

Cheyenne's last visit was to take refuge during winter heat. The pictures I took of her in January 2014 I remember like it was yesterday. Well it kind of was.

Rusty was a huge consolation for me after Cheyenne died in February but he has grown into much more than that. I enjoy his company a lot and he has a very different character from her.

I got Cheyenne when she was eight in 2009 and she was not only stubborn but she was also much more laid back and stand-offish

Cheyenne is gone but the silhouette of a cigar maker's cottage abides:

It was put up in the spot where those workers used to live to mark their passing...the factory was in the county building called, by no coincidence, the Gato Building.

The Gato Building is a tad bit more monumental than the cigar worker houses... and ironically these days houses the Monroe County Public Heath department among others.

One of the pleasures of key west is that getting wet, unless you are on your way to work of an office type, is no big deal. I sat and spluttered and waited for I don't know what.

It was entirely comfortable for my dog and myself.

There is a geocache out here somewhere and I have hunted high and low for the damned thing but I cannot find it. Yet.

Abbondanza is visible in the distance, across Simonton Street.

The giant representation of a cigar is the largest of its kind we are told.

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"Given previous influenza pandemics, and this not an influenza virus so we don't know for certain it will act like that, but if it did, by far the second wave was the worst one of each of the pandemics....A second wave (of COVID-19) in late summer or early fall that lasts three or four months could make everything we've experienced so far seem mild."